Any type of current-drawing appliance is a consumer of electricity. There are several different sources of electricity in the world. Some sources are natural, such as lightning, some are a combination of nature and human efforts, such as wind farming, and some are completely man made, such as coal-fueled power generation. All however have one commonality: A limit to production and supply.
It was once thought that the use of nuclear reactions and high pressure steam generation, in conjunction with high efficiency turbines, would generate unlimited amounts of electricity to be used in society. After several mishaps, and the realization that the disposal of nuclear waste remains problematic, it became clear that nuclear power generation would not be a panacea. Alternate energy sources have been developed, such as harnessing wind power, damming rivers and tidal generation, to help supplement electricity generation. These sources however rely on nature, and have limited capability in their power. They simply do not produce enough power at this stage of development to sustain current electricity demands.
The current choice for power production is to use unclean sources such as coal or oil burning production. This is the most widely used source for electricity generation, however it is also the dirtiest. The atmosphere is continually polluted through the burning of these fuels to produce electricity. The current scheme also uses up natural resources of a limited supply. As these resources become more and more scarce, their cost rises, and increases the cost to use these fuels as sources of electricity production. The final result is a spiraling upward of the cost to produce electricity. Concurrently, as society develops, it becomes more and more reliant on the use of electricity in everyday lives. Electricity is used to run appliances and machinery, to run manufacturing facilities and power homes and offices. Thus society faces the daunting situation where feasible energy production is decreasing and demand is increasing exponentially.
The remaining option is to reduce electricity consumption. It has been proven that the cheapest and easiest way to produce electricity cheaply is actually to not use it at all! That is because most of the appliances used in society are wasteful of their electricity supply. Many such appliances were engineered with a seemingly limitless supply of energy in mind. It is however, very feasible to approach these appliances with another perspective, to aid them in their use of energy and electricity and to improve their efficiency. By doing so the amount of wasted electricity is reduced, as well as the demands for additional production. Only recently has this become a popular notion as the operating cost of business rises with the cost of resources. Because it is costing more to live today because of an increase in the cost of energy, business and industry are starting to pay attention to the problem at hand. The truth is that business wants to reduce their operating cost and they are starting to see energy as a major sieve in their expenses.
Thus, it is considered desirable to provide control systems which can be configured to reduce the amount of electricity consumed by electrical appliances when such consumption is not necessary for health and welfare.